Below is a screen grab of a thread on facebook on which I found myself tagged by my sister. I don’t know the OP or any of the commenters except the other person named Shepherd. I kind of feel bad that I invaded it and got a wee bit dogmatic but I really try to find teachable moments and this was one of those.

As people marvel at the advancements in cancer cures that involve genetic engineering, why aren’t they reacting similarly to the advancements in crop breeding technology that involve genetic engineering?

Doc Mercola is at it again – spreading fear and misinformation. Claiming a scientific position when in fact, his extremist posts about GMOs are quite the opposite. I subscribe to his emails – for entertainment mostly. Though I delete the vast majority of the emails, every now and then I open one up, as I did today, and found this link to an article. I am posting the blood syringes poking the tomato as well, the picture accompanying the article – a common anti-GMO meme that is so laughably NOT what GMOs are. The hook in my inbox was quite misleading as well. It said: Beware: These 10 Food Companies Are Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing

Admittedly, there are things Mercola posts that are true – the well-documented benefits of high intensity exercise (known as high intensity interval training, or HIIT) for example. Consider this article published on the Science Daily website way back in 2010. Granted, Mercola has published extensively about HIIT. But to find truth on his website you really have to work at it. I doubt most people are willing to put in that kind of time and research.

Generally, Mercola is extremely anti-medical establishment, and I go so far as to say believe anything he says at your own risk – and likely peril. I actually considered stopping my mammograms back in the day when I believed in Mercola’s snake oil. He also claims that over half our diets should be made up of saturated fats.

Really? I almost bought that one too – no supportive citations sought. I believed anything in those days. The new Julee K googles subjects and includes ‘science’ as a search term. It’s amazing what different links show up with just one little added word – like this short Harvard School of Public Health article – clearly advising a moderate consumption of saturated fats based on scientific evidence.

Now I take the time to find peer-reviewed evidence to back up all the anecdotal claims made on the anything-goes new Wild West called the internet.

OK – back to GMOs.

Crop breeding technology, which is the broader category that a ‘food GMO’ falls into, is exciting! It is promising, full of possibilities and has the potential to solve many worldwide food-growing problems like pests and drought. There are many choices, many ways to get it done. We are entering a new age of the ability to manipulate DNA and as an open-minded non-scientist, I find myself intrigued by it – not scared.

Consider all the advancements in genetics when it comes to medicine. Do the GMO haters realize that drugs as commonplace and inexpensive as insulin would be impossible without genetic engineering? We are certainly reluctant to criticize or even be fearful of biological advancements when they cure cancer, right? Read about British baby Layla Richards. Given these life-saving, gene-altering miracles, why does gene-altering crop technology scare us so much?

The bottom line for me is this: good technology of any kind is not to be feared and even if it is feared, it shall not be stopped. Knowledge can’t be unlearned.

Though I haven’t posted in awhile, I am still passionate about spreading the real truth about GMOs and letting my story be known.

My blog tells the story – post by post – about how a person can go from believing that GMOs are dangerous and should be banned to realizing that there is much value and potential in transgenic technology and genetic engineering in general and that it can and will change the world – not just in the realm of food, but medicine and more.

I recently discovered a cooking teacher and food writer who has written an impressive amount on the topic of GMOs – in a short time. Julie Kelly is a bright, refreshing, relatively new voice for science – profoundly aware, never having planned to speak favorably about GMOs and yet couldn’t keep silent about the topic. Best of all, I believe she understands to perfection the potential of genetic engineering.

Having just entered the world of GMOs a year ago, she has been prolific in reporting about it. I am most impressed.

~Julee K/Sleuth4Health

Below is a list of some of her other articles on the topic: I have not read all of these and they may not represent how I feel about a certain topic within the realm of the broader GMO topic, but I’m sure I agree with most of what she says. I do admit that I am a frequent customer of Chipotle – for the sole reason that I love the taste of their food and I feel that it is a healthier fast food alternative than, say, a Big Mac.

Like this:

WordPress just informed me that today is the third anniversary of my very first post on this blog. I had totally forgotten. How apropos this news is after my last post about the transformation in perception I experienced after communicating via email with Dr. Folta and the angry mob chasing him down.

I went back and reread my very first post. Ugh. I am embarrassed by it now. I was so mislead but my intentions were always in the right place. I wanted to inform. I still do!

So even though I am ashamed of it, below you will see my first ever post. I don’t even know that person anymore. I have changed so much since then…

Another (extremely) benevolent GMO

Greg was my big brother, and he left this world four years ago. He died from a malignant brain tumor that looked like an octopus just inside his left ear, a tumor that declared war on his body. Specifically, his tumor was a glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) which is a very late stage, nasty glioma, also known as astrocytoma grade IV. He died scarcely 18 months after diagnosis. He was 56 and otherwise healthy, in the prime of his life really. During those precious final 18 months, he endured two craniotomies, multiple radiation blasts and a round or two of chemotherapy.

Last week I watched a segment on 60 Minutes that blew me away – so much so that I felt happy, excited and sad all at the same time. It would appear that a few people were recently completely cured of their glioblastomas.

Is natural always a good thing?

Everyone has heard of chemotherapy and radiation as common cancer treatments. But there is a big, bad new kid on the block: immunotherapy. A heretofore lesser utilized branch of cancer treatment, immunotherapy is now gaining momentum, fast, and biotechnology is stepping onto the stage as a major player in the therapy. And not only is it cutting edge transgenesis at work here, but a much maligned virus – polio – turns out to be an ideal medium for the process.

Simply put, polio attaches to cancer cells thereby making them targets of the immune system. The virus is safe to use because, via transgenic technology, the original polio is re-engineered using the common cold virus to replace the unwanted traits of polio. This ensures that the patient receiving the treatment does not contract actual polio.

This is so cutting edge it makes my head perform pirouettes. It sounds so simple, doesn’t it? It is so simple it has only taken over a hundred years of research to get here. In other words, this is no overnight sensation. This is the result of painstaking, tireless research of generations of experts. This is the result of endless hypotheses and stabs in the dark.

With all the public hysteria flying around the use of genetic modification in crop production – the calls for labeling, cries that the technology is ‘against God’s way’, causing the proliferation of ‘frankenfoods’, ruining the planet, causing all manner of disease, not natural, and so on, with all of that I have to ask, would anyone deny a loved one the cure for cancer because it is not natural? My guess is certainly not.

There is nothing natural about mixing one virus with another inside a lab then infecting cancer cells with it so that the immune system is triggered and thereby does what it does best – kill the bad stuff. That process is simply not going to happen naturally, on its own. The bio-engineer, the scientist, the expert must intervene to initiate this miracle of man. As nature would have it, our immune system does not attack malignant tumors in our body.

A few years ago, I was of the belief that everything needed to be natural to be good and right and in line with the proper way of things. A scientist had the audacity to tell me that if left unchecked, nature’s intent was to kill me, that it is science that saves me time and again. I was so offended at the time I wanted to punch the wall, but now, I understand what was meant by that statement.

I will wind down this post by adding that there are many other immunotherapy methods and drugs out there being utilized and researched that don’t involve GMOs, and by no means is polio the only agent being looked at in those that do.

As I see it, any and all of of this is exciting! Immunotherapy is the emerging new darling in cancer research and is ushering in a new era of treatment. But before we all fill our champagne glasses, we need to remember to remain cautious. A recent article in Forbes puts the breaks on the fervor over this ‘miracle’ because of course there is a downside, but even so, I have no doubt that immunotherapy is the future of cancer treatment.

Countless, precious individuals like my brother will benefit as we get past the early stages and trials and these treatments become routine. There are even those trying to speed things up, as it were. See Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure.

Site traffic tells me that most of you are from very tech-savvy nations. You probably don’t worry about catching deadly diseases or whether you’ll have a roof over your head tonight or where your next meal is coming from. We all have our struggles, but you probably tell people you can’t complain when asked how you’re doing. Some people, not you of course, are so privileged that they even pretend to have ailments like Celiac disease, or they go on starvation diets. How crazy is it that we can afford to choose to suffer?

Well, well, well, Mr. Bill Nye appears to be the latest GMOs-Are-Actually-Pretty-Neat-Come-Lately. Welcome to the fold, Mr. Nye. I doubt many science types are surprised that you eventually got here, even if it took you awhile.

Apparently a face-to-face encounter with Monsanto scientists was enough for the science guy to stop questioning the safety, utility and reach of GMOs. Mr Nye, I fear you will be forever accused of having partaken of Monsanto’s kool-aid, as I was after I visited a Monsanto facility in Hawaii a few years back. One person went so far as to insinuate that Monsanto paid for my whole Hawaii vacation. If only!

Glad to see rationality and reason prevail here and it’s well about time. My respect for Nye is in tact.

And – is it just wishful thinking, or is Mother Jones’s Tom Philpott disguising a bit of squirm in this article?